Real World House Gets Museum, Not Restaurant

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Those hoping that a restaurant would eventually occupy the bottom floors of DC’s Real World house will be disappointed by this post. Bisnow is reporting that the much-talked about space will be the new home of the Laogai Museum, which claims that it is the first museum in the U.S. to directly address human rights in China.

Douglas Development’s Norman Jemal tells us the menu changed from appetizers to artifacts rather quickly: “We were negotiating with a restaurant, then the museum came in very decisive and snagged it.” It’s now in the design phase of its build-out of the bottom two floors of the four-story commercial brownstone, and meanwhile remains in its historic row house at 1109 M St NW.

We reported back in March that the top two floors of the mansion in Dupont Circle (map) had been occupied by local non-profit HealthHIV which believed that the high-profile space could be used not only an office, but as a community center and a modest studio for taping web-based trainings.

If anyone knows what restaurant was in negotiations for the space, let us know in the comments section.